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Cited by 523Soil Carbon and Nitrogen DynamicsIsotope Analysis in EcologyMicrobial Community Ecology and Physiology

Soil organic matter in soil depth profiles: Distinct carbon preferences of microbial groups during carbon transformation

Kramer, Christiane, Gleixner, Gerd·2008·Soil Biology and Biochemistry
DOI 10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.09.016
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Abstract

This study investigates how carbon sources of soil microbial communities vary with soil depth. Microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) were extracted from 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm depth intervals from agricultural soils and analysed for their stable carbon isotopes (δ13C values). The soils had been subjected to a vegetation change from C3 (δ13C approximately equal to -29.3 per thousand) to C4 plants (δ13C approximately equal to -12.5 per thousand) 40 years previously, which allowed us to trace the carbon flow from plant-derived input (litter, roots, and root exudates) into microbial PLFA. While bulk soil organic matter (SOM) reflected approximately equal to 12% of the C4-derived carbon in top soil (0-20 cm) and 3% in deeper soil (40-60 cm), the PLFA had a much higher contribution of C4 carbon of about 64% in 0-20 cm and 34% in 40-60 cm. This implies a much faster turnover time of carbon in the microbial biomass compared to bulk SOM. The isotopic signature of bulk SOM and PLFA from C4 cultivated soil decreases with increasing soil depth (-23.7 per thousand to -25.0 approximately equal to for bulk SOM and -18.3 approximately equal to to -23.3 approximately equal to for PLFA), which demonstrates decreasing influence of the isotopic signature of the new C4 vegetation with soil depth. In terms of soil microbial carbon sources this clearly shows a high percentage of C4 labelled and thus young plant carbon as microbial carbon source in topsoils. With increasing soil depth this percentage decreases and SOM is increasingly used as microbial carbon source. Among all PLFA that were associated to different microbial groups it could be observed that (a) depended on availability, Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria prefer plant-derived carbon as carbon source, however, (b) Gram-positive bacteria use more SOM-derived carbon sources while Gram-negative bacteria use more plant biomass. This tendency was observed in all three-depth intervals. However, our results also show that microorganisms maintain their preferred carbon sources independent on soil depth with an isotopic shift of 3-4 approximately equal to from 0-20 to 40-60 cm soil depth.

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Authors
Kramer, C., & Gleixner, G.
Affiliations
Max Planck Society (DE)
Corresponding author
Gleixner, Gerd
ORCID
Gleixner, Gerd
Venue
Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2008-02
Volume
40
Issue
2
Pages
425-433
ISSN
0038-0717 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.09.016
OpenAlex
W1973436085
Cited by
523
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 12
FWCI
17.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Soil Biology and Biochemistry (publishedVersion)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Isotope Analysis in Ecology
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Keywords
soil organic matter, soil depth distribution, microbial carbon sources, microbial phospholipid fatty acids, stable carbon isotopes, carbon turnover, Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, plant-derived carbon, soil microbial biomass, agricultural soils

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